Third in a series.
In the same week that LAUSD announced hundreds of teacher layoffs, the Culver City Unified School District is purring along on cruise control.
Buoyed by the news that Gov. Brown’s new fiscal year budget will channel $6 million into District coffers, Asst. Supt. Mike Reynolds said that no teachers were laid off this past school year. “We restored all of the furlough days that were in place before the economy turned around,” he said. “Things are looking very good.
Mr. Reynolds said that spending flexibility is the primary beneficiary of the better-than-anticipated $6 million that will be streaming into the School District’s treasury.
“There are two main benefits of the $6 million,” Mr. Reynolds said. “Four million is one-time money that allows us to invest in one-time expenditures that otherwise might have been deferred. We plan to do s major enhancements to our (first-year) Common Core program.
“We will buy additional technology for the students, additional training for the staff, and we will purchase a substantial amounts of materials and supplies.”
One motivation for this plan, said Mr. Reynolds, is that “Gov. Brown is recommending the extra money be focused on Common Core investments. We try to align the one-time revenue with onetime expenses.”
For the past three years, Prop. 30 funding, approved as a temporary relief the year Supt. Dave LaRose and Mr. Reynolds, also has been a flexible spending source.
Prop. 30 is due to expire on Dec. 31 of next year.
“When that happens,” Mr. Reynolds said, “our hope is that the state will backfill those revenue sources.”
